Mumbai, Jun 9 (PTI) Ali Fazal was humbled to observe Judi Dench perform her scenes during the shoot of “Victoria and Abdul” as the actor said he got to learn a lot from the iconic British actress.

In the British-American biographical drama, Dench plays the role of Queen Victoria who forms an unconventional alliance with an Indian servant, Abdul, played by Ali.

“She is so energetic, so hands-on with the script, her lines, it just amazed me. Whenever I wanted to rehearse, I would just pop into her van and we would sit and read. It doesn’t happen often with someone like her stature,” Ali told PTI.

“Since we never really did any workshops before starting the shoot, it was really cool to observe her perform and note her approach towards the craft.”

Directed by Stephen Frears and written by Lee Hall, “Victoria and Abdul” is based on the book of same name by Shrabani Basu. The film, also starring Eddie Izzard, Tim Pigott-Smith and Adeel Akhtar, is scheduled to release on September 22.

Recently, a photograph featuring Ali, Richa Chadha and Paris Jackson, hanging out in Los Angeles went viral and even sparked speculations of a future collaboration between the trio.

However, Ali rubbished the reports of doing a film with the daughter of pop legend Michael Jackson, saying, “We just met and there were reports of us doing a movie together.

Nothing is happening right now. It (the report) went on spiralling to something else.”

Ali said the 19-year-old actress is keen to visit India but other than that they did not have any conversation about starring in a film together.

“There is absolutely nothing which is happening with her.

We just met and had a nice lunch. She did want to come to India, but that’s about it. She is busy doing her other projects.

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